This is the first of last year's Record Store Day haul, appropriately timed since tomorrow is Record Store Day! Much like last year, I've spend the last few weeks lusting over the list of over-priced re-releases and occasional interesting records. That's pretty much what happened last year with this one, amongst others. Needless to say I was outside Banquet before 7, sat in the queue much further back than I expected (number 57 I think), cold, reading a shitty book, waiting to go in. The guys around me were chatty enough, so it was far from terrible. I like Record Store Day, despite it basically being the record companies abusing the fact that I love spending money on limited edition vinyl and going to stupid lengths to do so. It takes a lot to get me out of bed and sat on a road in Kingston before sunrise. I think I love it because I love Banquet Records, and I loved Spillers Records, and the first year I heard of RSD when I happened to be visiting Colorado, I loved Bart's CD Cellar and Albums on the Hill. I just like record shopping, if there's a day of the year when its considered acceptable to spend hundreds on vinyl on a Saturday morning then I'm all for it.
All that said, I do wish the records were better.
Some of the vinyl that appears on that expensive morning each April is genuinely awesome. Others however are just the record company breaking my balls. This is basically one of them. I doubt the Deftones even know this record came out (which is neither a comment on the amount of weed they smoke nor the coma Chi is recovering from). The cover of "Drive" is, to my best knowledge, new. The others have all appeared in various forms before. I can't be doing with iTunes, so it's nice to have the songs that were bonus tracks to Diamond Eyes (especially the Drive Like Jehu cover). Otherwise, the release seems distinctly half-hearted. This record cost me £20, which places it firmly in the more expensive end of my record collection. It has no insert, gatefold sleeve, artwork isn't very inspiring, coloured vinyl or mp3s (I'm finally making a digital copy as I write this, although they always sound a bit shit). They've really made no effort to make me buy it at all, other than only pressing 5,000 copies worldwide, which is quite a lot really. Of course there was never any doubt I was going to buy it.
Musically its great. Of course it is. I've grown up listening to the Deftones and to say that most of the bands I listened to when I was 15 are, in hindsight, shit is quite the understatement. Deftones have always been there to remind me that 15-year-old me had some sense. I've always imagined them to have a pretty eclectic record collection, and the choice of songs here back that up. I could live without The Smiths cover, they do nothing for me. Between the Deftones and Jonah Matranga covers of Jawbox, I eventually picked up their album a few years back (but that should be credited to the B-Sides and Rarities cd rather than this record). All in all, not much new, but an enjoyable record to play.
All these rants aside, I will be outside Banquet even earlier this year (each year the queue gets longer, so I have to be there sooner). Luckily its now only a short walk from my house. Still, not looking forward to setting my alarm for 4am.
Format: 12"
Tracks: 11
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Banquet
When: 16/04/11
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
